Contraceptive App Natural Cycles Blamed For String of Unwanted Pregnancies (standard.co.uk)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A contraceptive mobile phone app used by tens of thousands of British women has come under fire after reportedly sparking a string of unwanted pregnancies. Swedish birth control app Natural Cycles, which costs $55, tracks body temperature to accurately predict when in the month a woman is more likely to fall pregnant. The period monitor was hailed as a non-mood altering alternative to the pill and, if used perfectly, was found to be 99 per cent effective by researchers. But the app has come under fire after the Sodersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm lodged a complaint with the Swedish Medical Products Agency, the country's government body responsible for regulation of medical devices. It claimed staff at the hospital had recorded 37 women who had fallen pregnant in the last quarter of 2017 after using the app. One midwife said the hospital had a duty to report all side effects.

Comments

99% effective?

[Wulf2k]

So, you'd expect that if at least 3700 women used it. ...Ignoring every other aspect of why it's stupid to count on this if you didn't want to get pregnant, anyway.

Re:99% effective?

[The Snowman]

You realize that this is actually a valid technique that has been used for many years, right?

Valid technique, yes. Science does back up the fact that this is a valid technique. However...

It does work if done properly because the female body does give signs when fertile.

...its efficacy is terrible. Yes, the female body does give signs when fertile, or more accurately, when preparing to ovulate. The problem is that said signs are like pissing in the ocean compared to the hundreds of other signs the body gives off on a regular basis. This makes it nearly impossible to use this technique. Even more so if the woman has any health problems. Thyroid slightly out of whack? Oh well, enjoy the next nine months. Sick? Too bad.

The problem is that it should be done with a lot of coaching from someone who knows what they are doing, which tends to be a failure of most apps.

The problem is that this technique works in theory, but fails miserably in practice even with "coaching," whatever that means. I am not inviting a coach into my bedroom to tell me when it is safe to fuck my wife and not get her pregnant.

Unfortunate side effect

[Major_Disorder]

is that this results in stupid people having babies.
Idocracy was not supposed to be a documentary.

Re:Swedes try product because of marketing

[Opportunist]

Yes, let's be consistent about it. So what's your stance on childcare, school lunch, medical examinations for children and other aids for the mom?

Until you're born we'll fight for your life but after you ARE actually alive, you're on your own.

Face it, you're not pro life. You're anti-fucking. You want the woman to suffer from having "sinned", and you can't really say it that way because everyone would instantly consider it what it is: A bullshit reason. So it's the "sanctity of life". Bullshit. Life isn't sacred. Twice so if you believe in the invisible sky daddy who kills people according to his own advertising brochure left and right with impunity because he didn't like the cut of their jib or some other bullshit reason.

Sanctity of life, my ass...

Re:Swedes try product because of marketing

[LeftCoastThinker]

As a society, we have this thing called adoption for irresponsible parents (it takes two) who get pregnant but are not equipped emotionally, mentally, financially, etc. There are a lot of responsible adults waiting to take these "unwanted" children.

You are proposing a false dichotomy. It is not either murder the baby or have a nanny state care for the mother and child in perpetuity. There is a third option, called adoption, so please get your facts straight.

Your argument, my ass...

And no, pro life people are not anti sex. There are literally dozens of effective birth control methods (the pill, condoms, tubal ligation, etc.) and once you get married, you get to have more sex safely in the right context than any single person ever will have and hopefully experience the joy of having children (the actual purpose of sex)...

Re: Swedes try product because of marketing

[LeftCoastThinker]

Or, you know, adopt them into loving families, because we are not actually wild animals and have empathy, love and altruism...

Re:Swedes try product because of marketing

[MightyYar]

Until you're born we'll fight for your life but after you ARE actually alive, you're on your own.

OK, so it's not the way I think, but it's not fundamentally illogical. In fact, it's just a self-consistent opposition to murder at any stage. Just because someone opposes murder does not mean they automatically support government social programs... you are the one making a weird logical jump.

Re:Swedes try product because of marketing

[Blymie]

I don't see the issue. Human life isn't any more magical than .. life.

I get mice in the house, I kill them. And before you get all weepy eyed, and city-dweller outraged, read up on the hantavirus... and it is 100% confirmed in this area. Live capture and release would make me a monster, anyone with the hantavirus has more than a 50% chance of death.

My point? I kill mice. And an unborn fetus has fewer neurons, less brain power, is less 'aware' than a mouse for many, many months after conception.

Lots of people eat meat, too.. you may or may not, but my point is that if I'm going to kill a cow to eat, why should I care about someone killing a baby that won't be cared for properly?

All of this pro-life.. ALL of it, every single bit, is founded on the concept that "human babies are special". I kill the babies of other animals all the time, I kill things to eat, and so there is zero difference killing a fetus.

The only way you can logically deviate from this argument, is if you somehow assign 'specialness' to a human fetus.

So, what's so special? A soul? A divine prerogative? It's cuter? You don't like people fucking and making mistakes?

I'll give you a counter here. Let's say you close down all abortion. That means that the people that are least able to control themselves? Are going to have more kids, with less self-control.

Yet, if you allow abortion? People with zero self control no longer multiply without abandon. Meaning, the species may have a hope in hell of having restraint.

Re:Swedes try product because of marketing

[Cederic]

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

You're from the same fucking tree.

wear a damn condom. Contraceptives exist and they work

The irony. From multiple sources:

If you use condoms perfectly every single time you have sex, they're 98% effective at preventing pregnancy.

So, less effective than this app. Of course, they're also not used perfectly. Frankly the only time you can guarantee avoiding pregnancy while using a condom is if you're having gay sex with another man.

My whore sister

If your sister has sex for money, didn't use contraceptives and only has three children then she's actually doing pretty well.

Re: Swedes try product because of marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

adopt them into loving families

How many kids can we sign you up for then, two maybe three?

People who think adoption is THE ONLY ANSWER, are rarely the ones willing to open their homes and hearts to the kids needing adoption.